FOR DREAMS BIGGER THAN FEARS

March 02, 2014 started off like yet another Sunday. Little did I realize that this day could create such a big impact. Day 2 of EWEEK 2014 it was. A workshop by the dream team was organized for the sixth and seventh graders in Samathur, a few kilometers from the Coimbatore city.

Dream In! The team has been capturing the dreams of a million youth. But the day with these kids were unmatched.  Barely 13 years old but their thought process, clarity of vision, ambition, passion, the drive to be successful and willingness to learn were truly inspiring.

Most of them had no idea about the difficulties and the challenges life has in store for them. When the team asked few students on what they wanted to become in future, the answers we heard were unexpected. One wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and start his airline manufacturing company, a few aspired to become doctors and a couple of them wanted to be I.A.S officers. With their head held high and utmost confidence they told their name suffixed with 'I.A.S'. I was taken back. Dreams and ambitions had no limits. Lawyers, teachers, pilot, entrepreneurs, police officers and all they had was ‘A DREAM’.

All their innocent smiles spoke just one language-love. The kids welcomed all of us with utmost enthusiasm. Truly the ‘annas’ and ‘akkas’ had a special effect. Very inquisitive, they were fascinated by the very things which most of us hardly notice. Not because we see or do them every day but because we don’t stop to appreciate those simple moments. Funny! As we grow old our dreams shrink. The fear of failure, assumptions of what is possible and what is impossible, the million questions that arise every day, the ‘what if’s, the obstacles we see in our path to success, the reasons we give for not trying- all these limit our aspirations.

Future of our country is this! Enjoying all the privileges which we don’t really deserve, we are indebted to kids like them who have not experienced the same delight. The only difference is the place we were born. Sessions and workshops with such kids are absolutely necessary, not just to share with them what we know, rather assume to know but to learn and grow from what they can teach us. Until today, I did not realize meeting a kid can do so much, change the way I think, alter my approach to what I see around, make me consider every moment a miracle and enjoy life with all its hurdles.  

I couldn’t have asked for anything better. A big thanks to all who made it happen. I’m sure this was a good learning experience for the entire team.  

"Climb every mountain,

Ford every stream,

Follow every rainbow,

Till you find your dream"

-from The Sound of Music